Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother

by Robert S. Bader

Zeppo was the Marx Brother who didn’t want to go into the family business. A juvenile delinquent in his teen years, before joining his brothers on stage, Zeppo balanced two auto mechanic and petty criminal. Even after getting dragged into the world of entertainment—for sixteen years, he did his familial duty as a vaudeville, Broadway, and movie star—he finally made his escape from the Four Marx Brothers. After failed attempts to find steady work in real estate, screenwriting, and the restaurant business, Zeppo finally hit it big as a Hollywood talent agent, representing stars like Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, and Lana Turner. From there, he bred racehorses, owned a manufacturing plant, tried out citrus ranching and commercial fishing, and patented several new inventions. He was, in short, a complex character, and his own family never quite figured him out.

The Reluctant Marx Brother gives a lively account of this checkered life and career. As Robert Bader recounts, Zeppo’s lifelong addiction to gambling led him into relationships with several notorious organized crime figures, and he would ultimately appear before grand juries more frequently than movie cameras. (He was certainly the only Marx Brother who saw the corpse of a friend in a newspaper crime scene photo.) Socially, he mixed as easily with mobsters like Mickey Cohen as he did with movie stars like Clark Gable. Comprehensively researched with the full cooperation of Zeppo’s estate, including the first-ever interviews with his two sons, this is a remarkable look at the many lives of Zeppo Marx—even the ones he did his best to keep secret.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

579 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 15, 2024

Reviews

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough. I think Bader's energy increased once he got past Zeppo's involvement with the other Marx Brothers after Duck Soup, when he could tell new stories and focus on the subject much more, since he's written earlier on the act.

This book makes a solid case for any movie about gangland l.a. from the 1930s on to Zeppo's death to have him in it, somewhere, and the same for movies about las vegas in that time. For reasons why I say that, well, read this book. Zeppo is a thoroughly unpleasant and unpredictable man, despite his occasional charm and inventive mind. I'm surprised he lived as long as he did despite the fistfights he got in with some pretty notable characters.

Bader's writing style is okay. He starts the engine and keeps it going. Nothing memorable in his phrasing, but that lack is made up for by the research needed to present this kind of portrait. Recommended to any Marx Brothers fan. It's made me want to watch the first movies again.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even as someone who is a fan of the Marx Brothers and enjoyed Zeppo in the movies, I knew only the bare minimum about him: he came to the act late, was considered funny in real life but didn’t get to show it, became a successful agent later.

I really had no idea how deep and wild Zeppo’s life got. Robert S. Bader was able to turn up all of it, and it’s really a remarkable story full of everything you could possibly imagine. Zeppo was a troubled person because of how his early career went, and that shaped all his relationships as he managed to have a wildly successful career outside of acting. Who knew he had the most interesting story out of the whole family? Bader is an excellent researcher for finding all this out.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for fans of the Marx.Brothers or the early years.of Hollywood. Beware it's a difficult read as Zeppo was a complicated and not easy to love person.

That being said,.I think Bader should have broken up the chapters more..Sometimes I needed a place to pause when moving from story to story. The writing was confusing in places and sometimes repetitive. It was hard keeping track when a story was started and then stopped to tell another story to make sense of the original story.

[Gary Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert S. Bader does his usual first rate job on this well researched and thoroughly detailed biography of the Marx Brother you know nothing about! Highly recommended

[Krissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the early days of the Internet, I was a member of a LISTSERV email list called S.P.A.Z.- (the) Society for the Prevention of Abuse Toward Zeppo. I may have also been an early member of its Facebook group.

But I'm a lifelong Marxist and reader, so when I saw there was a new Zeppo biography, I knew it was a must-read!

The book was extremely well researched and written, although a little dry. It made me sad to realize that Herbert Zeppo Marx wasn't a great guy. Quote from Groucho kind of says it all: "Chico was sort of a rascal and Zeppo isn't. He's just cold-blooded." (ca. Spring 1973.)

It would be incredible if the author, Robert S. Bader, was able to write a book on Leonard Chico Marx, as the only existent book about Chico was written by his daughter, Maxine, in 1980. A new, updated, more comprehensive biography would be a real treasure for Marx Brothers fans. And based on this book, I would be thrilled to read any of Mr Bader's books.

Oh, and I now believe that any abuse that Zeppo got during his life was probably pretty much his own fault. So I will not be rejoining S.P.A.Z.

[Ryan Copping · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeppo’s life is more interesting than his performances. Bader goes into great detail (at times, too much) about Zeppo’s rise as an addendum to his brother’s success. More interesting is his post-acting career, succesfully running a talent agency and becoming financially sucessful on his own. Zeppo’s positive traits are contrasted with his cruelty as a romantic partner and parent, which Bader pulls no punches in describing. A fascinating look at a flawed man, driven by being forever in the shadow of his brillant older brothers.

[Jef. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fourth Marx Brother

Incredibly well researched, with a lot of information not usually included with the histories of the Marx Brothers. From his early days as a paid contract player for his brothers to his marriages and children and his incredible business successes, it's informative and fascinating.

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

So at long last i know all about Zeppo.This entertaining,well researched book,gives us the lowdown on Zeppo.The way he channelled his resentment against his brothers to end up worth more than his brothers,put together.
However he was a rather nasty individual described by the author as a narcissist,selfish and self centred.He was a bad brother,husband and father.

[Monty Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeppo was not interesting in the Marx Bros. movies. This does not seem like a controversial statement. Even as straight men go, he was bland.

In real life, he was a (mobbed-up?) high-stakes gambler who kept starting successful businesses and unsuccessful marriages, which is much more interesting.

[John Raspanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot. The author is a fan of Zeppo Marx but still provided a "warts and all" portrayal of him. Kudos! Just what a bio should be.

[Michael Kocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm thrilled this exists and found it immensely fascinating. I don't think it has much crossover appeal to people who aren't Marx Brothers fanatics

[Jarkko Gronberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

On vuosi 2025 ja olemme onnekkaita kun saamme vieläkin uusia kirjoja Marxin veljeksistä.

[Jami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent telling of the life of the Reluctant Marx Brother

[Jimmy Mak · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating glimpse into the complicated life of the "boring" Marx Brother.

[Erin Finlen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An honest story of Zeppo's life that makes it seem like people were quicker to forgive him than they should have been. People including the biographer.

Edited for an actual review:
Okay, I had to go read some other books and actually think about this review before I could write it. So, here we go.
Zeppo Marx was the youngest Marx Brother by quite a lot, between him and his oldest brother Chico is just under 14 years. There are a lot of parallels one could (and probably should draw) between the two brothers. Chico was a gambler and womanizer, but by all accounts, including his daughter, a lovable guy. Zeppo was also a gambler and a womanizer but according to most people a sh**head. And the biography does a good job of portraying this. Zeppo was a smart, funny and talented individual but he was also ruthless, greedy and vain. Where Chico was Minnie's favorite and allowed to do whatever he wanted, he still had a pretense of discipline through his father and grandparents, it's also worth noting that he grew up in New York, with a brother close in age and left home at a young age, being gone most of the time after the birth of Zeppo.

Zeppo, on the other hand, grew up in Chicago where he was given more or less free roam of a city that was eager to turn kids like him into criminals. And if Minnie, their mother, hadn't pulled him into the act, he probably would have gone that route. As it was, he joined his brothers but was an absolute brat. There is a story where he tried to terrify a pregnant Betty, Chico's wife, because she was supposed to be keeping him line. There are stories of him making fun of his aging mother. His attitude toward Groucho's first wife, Ruth, is awful. And after he adopted kids the kids suffered greatly at the hands of their adopted father.

The guy was not a good person, but the author of this book seems to spend a lot of time making excuses for his terrible behavior and I had a very hard time stomaching this, along with his absolute hatred of Chico. I'm not saying Chico was perfect, but if his daughter (who from what I can tell had a lot of therapy) can forgive him and say she was happy he was her father, but then turn around and say "No one liked Zeppo," you know the guy was bad. I also have questions for Susan about how much she disliked Chico over Zeppo, but at least she didn't write a whole book about it.

[Jack Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Marx Brother, Zeppo was the least of the bunch. Much younger than his brothers, he joined the act after it had been together for years, replacing Gummo who left the act to serve in the army during WWI, basically to keep him out of what was likely to be a career as a criminal. He was never made a full partner, never really was given much to do on stage or on the screen, and after fulfilling his contractual obligations to the act at the end of their Paramount run he left. Now things start getting interesting as he ends up becoming the most financially successful of the brothers moving from being a top Hollywood agent, to a successful restaurateur, and then pursuing his fascination with all things mechanical, he joined with a few others to found a manufacturing company that ended up with the exclusive right to make a clamp used on American aircraft during WWII making his company extremely successful in a very short time. His personal life and his businesses often crossed over into legally questionable areas as men like Bugsy Siegel and Johnny Rosselli make appearances throughout. Zeppo’s also had a significant interest in gambling, but unlike his brother Chico, he tended to be more successful. His personal life with 3 marriages’ including one to a future Mrs. Sinatra, and his less than stellar performance as a father to two adopted sons are also examined in detail providing the reader with more insight into his life. Robert S. Bader, the author of the definitive examination of the Marx Brothers extensive performing prior to films career (Four of The Three Musketeers) and the co-author Susan Marx’s auto-biography has done another incredible deep dive into Marxist biography and a must for any fan of the team.